Another week, another list of lackluster first-run releases. In fact, the highest grossing first-run release of the week managed less than $10 million at the box office. There was only one contender for DVD Pick of the Week, and that was Brand Upon the Brain! - Criterion Collection.
However, even that might be a little too out there for most people.
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There was a bit of a surprise on top of the Home Market this week as Guess Who led all releases and earned top spot with $8.67 million in DVD rentals, $750,000 in VHS rentals for a $9.42 million total.
The film also led the DVD sales chart, but as usual no numbers were released.
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Despite two new openers in the top five, Constatine remained the best on the rental market with $6.76 million in DVD rentals and $620,000 in VHS rentals. Its combined total of $7.38 million was 27% lower than last week, but it wasn't the worst drop-off in the top five.
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Every week films get a second chance at success from the home market; or, in some cases, a first chance at success. Here is a list of wide releases, limited releases, classics and a few from the growing TV on DVD section. Another slow week in terms of first run releases as The Upside of Anger - Buy from Amazon is the only one worth picking up.
For that matter, it's the only one worth renting.
Also coming out this week are a couple of dubious special editions and some TV on DVD that runs the range from underappreciated classics like 3rd Rock from the Sun - Buy from Amazon to nostalgia infused duds like Gilligan's Island - The Complete Third Season - Buy from Amazon.
The former is the second DVD pick of the week, the latter is not.
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Revenge of the Sith dominated nearly every market it opened in and in most of them it was the only new film in the top ten. Because of this there's almost no international details to report and those details that are available are single market releases.
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Kingdom of Heaven couldn't maintain its opening weekend numbers as it plummeted 49% to $27.2 million on 6700 screens in 98 markets for a two week total of $88.9 million. Had the film earned that during its first weekend of release its future would have looked rather rosy, but as it is now it was have a real hard time making back its production budget. The film's biggest market continues to be Germany, where the film fell 46% to $3.4 million on 848 screens, it fell 40% in the U.K. to $2.9 million on 446 screens and 33% in Spain to $3.3 million on 435 screens. Kingdom of Heaven had only one opening over the weekend, a $2.4 million debut in Japan on 492 screens and only has one more opening to go in China. The film's international run is a lot closer to Van Helsing's than Troy's, which should result in a $150 million to $200 million international total.
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The summer box office season got off to a decidedly ambivalent start this weekend with the nearly worldwide launch of Kingdom of Heaven; the film opened in 100 markets on 6,500 screens and pulled in a middling $53.8 million.
The obvious comparison is with fellow historical epic, Troy; that film brought in $54.7 million 6,722 screens in 47 markets in its first foray on the international scene. Kingdom of Heaven's biggest debut came in Germany where the film earned $6.4 million on 842 (including sneak peaks), while the film also did solid business in Spain ($4.9 million on 435 screens), U.K. ($4.8 million on 443), France ($4.5 million), South Korea ($4 million on 333 screens) and Italy ($3.1 million on 616).
While the film will almost assuredly repeat as international champion next weekend (there are no massive openings scheduled), the future isn't that rosy for Kingdom of Heaven. It only has two significant markets left to open in, China and Japan, and should quickly fall down the charts as more summer blockbusters hit the international markets. The film needs about $350 million worldwide to show a profit for its theatrical release, but that seems unlikely at this point. Not out of the question, just unlikely.
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While XXX: State of the Union easily took top spot on the international charts, its numbers were clearly lower than anticipated. The film opened in 64 markets, finishing first in 20 of them, but its per screen average was tiny at $14.8 million on 4,800 screens.
It did have a few bright spots, mostly in Asia.
For instance, the film's best single market performance came in South Korea where it brought in $1.3 million on just 174 screens, but was still a distant second to a local flick. The film did finish first in Thailand with nearly $390,000 on 60 screens ($500,000 including sneak peaks), $240,000 from 50 in the Philippines, $225,000 on 30 in Singapore and $170,000 on 19 in Taiwan.
The rest of the film's run was nearly uniformly awful.
XXX: State of the Union finished first in Spain with $950,000 on 400 screens, which was a pyrrhic victory at best. The film managed $1.8 million in the U.K. on 493 screens finishing a distant second to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and the result was the same in Australia where the film took in $930,000 on 246 screens. Worst of all, the film opened in second place in Germany with $1.19 million on 598 screens, nearly 80% lower than the original managed.
The film had similar results in Latin America, $540,000 in Mexico, off more than 75% from the original; Brazil at $360,000 lower by more than 70%, etc. No one was expecting the film to reach the same level as the original, but at this pace the film won't hit $100 million worldwide.
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It's not summer yet. Anyone who has read the May Preview knows Summer doesn't begin until the first full weekend in May, but a lot of people got caught up the in the hype and were predicting a Summer-like box office.
Even my more subdued predictions were too high, as no film was able to top expectations by more than a rounding error and both new films missed expectations by nearly $20 million combined.
That led the box office downward by 3.00% from last weekend and 13.0% from last year. Year-to-date the numbers are hardly better with 2005 behind 2004 by nearly 6% at $2.475 billion to $2.628 billion.
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It was a good news, bad news kind of weekend for Constantine. The film remained in top spot in Japan with $2,330,027 on 349 screens for a $9,011,671 running tally in the market. Bad news, it dropped 37% during its second weekend in the market, which is really steep for Japan. Overall the film brought in $3 million on 1,200 screens in 40 markets for a international box office of $136.4 million.
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For the first time in a couple of weeks there's an actual race for first place between two movies that have very different target audiences.
The first is a straight up action flick targeting the prime demographic of adolescent males from 18 to 35.
The second is a quirky comedy that should have wide, across the board appeal. Combined, they should bump up the box office ahead of the lucrative summer season.
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During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner, Unleashed - Official Site.
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April is one of the weakest months of the year because it is so close to the massive summer box office season. A film released in late April only has one or two weeks at the box office before being crushed by the competition, so studios tend to be wary of what they release at this time. On the plus side, they tend not to dump too many duds either and it doesn't take much for any of these films to please the studios since expectations are low to begin with.
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During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - Official Site.
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During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner, The Jacket - Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
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During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner In Good Company - Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
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The New Year makes for an interesting time to look at how last year's blockbusters have affected our All Time Top Box Office Stars list.
As usual, there are some familiar names doing well, and some surprise new entries.
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The shaded area represents the expected performance range for a film, based on its opening weekend box office. 95% of films fall within the shaded area. If a film trends towards the top end of the shaded area, it has good legs compared to the average film; if it trends towards the bottom end of the shaded area, it has poor legs. The predictive area is based on movies from the past 5 years.

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